Harold Cox (1859 – 1 May 1936) was a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

MP for

Preston Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to: Places England *Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement **The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement **County Boro ...

from

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

to 1910.

Early life

The son of Homersham Cox, a

County Court A county court is a court based in or with a jurisdiction covering one or more counties, which are administrative divisions (subnational entities) within a country, not to be confused with the medieval system of ''county courts'' held by the high ...

judge, Cox was educated at

Tonbridge School (God Giveth the Increase) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = , president = , head_label ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and was scholar and later fellow at

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

where he took a

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

degree in 1882. He later lectured on

Political Economy Political economy is the study of how Macroeconomics, economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and Economy, national economies) and Politics, political systems (e.g. law, Institution, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied ph ...

for Cambridge University Extension Society in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

and

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

Edward Carpenter Edward Carpenter (29 August 1844 – 28 June 1929) was an English utopian socialist, poet, philosopher, anthologist, an early activist for gay rightsWarren Allen Smith: ''Who's Who in Hell, A Handbook and International Directory for Human ...

told some of Harold's story, and acknowledged his part in providing Edward with comfortable footwear: :DURING my absence in the United States, my friend Harold Cox, who had just left Cambridge, came down to Millthorpe and spent a good part of the summer there - remaining a bit after my return home. He wanted to get manual and farm and garden experience, and that same autumn he plunged into farming - took a farm at Tilford in Surrey, and inducted a little colony into it. But the land was mere sand, and the experience of one winter and spring was enough! In less than a year he gave the place up, and went out, by way of a change, to India, to the Anglo-Mohammedan College at Futtehgur. While in India he went in '85 or '86 for a tour in Cashmere, and from Cashmere he sent me a pair of Indian

sandal Sandals are an open type of footwear, consisting of a sole held to the wearer's foot by straps going over the instep and around the ankle. Sandals can also have a heel. While the distinction between sandals and other types of footwear can some ...

s. Harold taught mathematics for two years in India at the

Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College ( ur, Madrasatul Uloom Musalmanan-e-Hind, italics=yes) was founded in 1875 by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, initially as a primary school, with the intention of taking it to a college level institution, known as Muhammed ...

, which is now

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

at Aligarh. He returned to England in 1887 to read for the Bar, and became a student of

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

. Instead of a barrister, he became a journalist. As a proponent of

free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econo ...

, he was secretary of the Cobden Club from 1899 to 1904. Cox was elected as a Liberal

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Preston in the general election of 1906, where he campaigned vigorously against the Unionist's proposals for Tariff Reform.

Member of Parliament

However his tenure as a Liberal MP was not a happy one; Cox was a classical liberal but the Liberal Party was moving away from this to embrace new liberalism during the passage of the

Liberal welfare reforms The Liberal welfare reforms (1906–1914) were a series of acts of social legislation passed by the Liberal Party after the 1906 general election. They represent the emergence of the modern welfare state in the United Kingdom. The reforms demons ...

. Cox, almost alone in the Liberal Party, fought against his party's policies of old-age pensions, meals for poor schoolchildren and unemployment benefit. He exclaimed in his ''Socialism in the House of Commons'' (1907) that he was against weakening individual and group responsibility.

G. P. Gooch George Peabody Gooch (21 October 1873 – 31 August 1968) was a British journalist, historian and Liberal Party politician. A follower of Lord Acton who was independently wealthy, he never held an academic position, but knew the work of histori ...

, a Liberal MP in support of such reforms, said that Cox "was the only man on the Liberal side who clung to the doctrines of ''laissez-faire'' in their unadulterated form. While we saw in the state an indispensable instrument for establishing a minimum standard of life for the common man, he dreaded the slackening of moral fibre as a result of getting 'something for nothing'." In the general election of January 1910, Cox sought re-election as a free trade candidate in opposition to the official Liberal candidate, Sir John Gorst but came bottom of the poll. He stood as a free trade candidate at the Cambridge by-election in 1911 but failed to win the seat.F. W. Hirst, �
Cox, Harold (1859–1936)
��, rev. H. C. G. Matthew, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 ;online edn, Sept 2010, accessed 19 Dec 2010. He was subsequently

Alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

of the

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

from 1910 to 1912 and then editor of the ''

Edinburgh Review The ''Edinburgh Review'' is the title of four distinct intellectual and cultural magazines. The best known, longest-lasting, and most influential of the four was the third, which was published regularly from 1802 to 1929. ''Edinburgh Review'', ...

'' to 1929. Cox also served on a number of committees: the Bryce Commission on German Outrages in 1915, the Committee on Public Retrenchment in 1916 and the Royal Commission on Decimal Currency in 1919.

Stamp's Law of Statistics

Cox originated the citation which subsequently became known as "Stamp's Law of Statistics": "The individual source of the statistics may easily be the weakest link. Harold Cox tells a story of his life as a young man in India. He quoted some statistics to a Judge, an Englishman, and a very good fellow. His friend said, 'Cox, when you are a bit older, you will not quote Indian statistics with that assurance. The Government are very keen on amassing statistics – they collect them, add them, raise them to the nth power, take the cube root and prepare wonderful diagrams. But what you must never forget is that every one of these figures comes in the first place from the ''chowky dar'' illage watchman who just puts down what he damn pleases.'"

Legacy

The

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

politician Philip Snowden said of Cox: "There has been no member of the House of Commons in my time quite like Mr. Harold Cox. Mr. Asquith once said of him that he was the sort of man for whom a special constituency ought to be provided to keep him in the House of Commons. He was almost the sole survivor of the old Manchester School. Mr. Cox was a very polished speaker, and stated the case with which he was dealing with great intellectual force... e was anincorrigible individualist".Philip, Viscount Snowden, ''An Autobiography. Volume One. 1864-1919'' (London: Ivor Nicholson and Watson, 1934), p. 182, p. 191. In an obituary for '' The Economic Journal'',

Charles Mallet Sir Charles Edward Mallet (2 December 1862 – 21 November 1947), was a British historian and Liberal politician. He was knighted in 1917. Life He was the only son of the activist Louisa (born Udny) and Charles Mallet, a civil servant. He wa ...

wrote: :Many friends still hold in honour and affection Harold Cox’s fearless independence, fine character, unworldly life, and the ideals which he held with such staunch tenacity and expressed with so much gallantry, urbanity and grace.

(September 1936) "Obituary: Harold Cox", The Economic Journal, Vol. 46, No. 183, pp. 562–56
Jstor link
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Publications

The following works of Harold Cox are available through

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

: * 1891: (with

Sidney Webb Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, (13 July 1859 – 13 October 1947) was a British socialist, economist and reformer, who co-founded the London School of Economics. He was an early member of the Fabian Society in 1884, joining, like Geo ...

The Eight Hours Day
* 1902
The United Kingdom and its Trade
* 1902
The Colonies and the Corn Tax
* 1903: (with Ernest Edwin Williams
Free Trade v. Protection
* 1903
Mr. Balfour’s Pamphlet: A Reply
* 1904: (editor
British Industries under Free Trade
* 1906
Land Nationalization and Land Taxation
* 1911: Introduction t
The Development of the Telephone in Europe
by Herbert Laws Webb * 1914
The Economic Strength of Great Britain
* 1920
Economic Liberty
* 1922
The Problem of Population

The Public Debt of Great Britain
North American Review volume 173
The Public Debts of the British Possessions
''North American Review'' volume 174

Notes

External links

* * *
Harold Cox's Dictionary of National Biography entry
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, Harold 1859 births 1936 deaths Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Academic staff of Aligarh Muslim University UK MPs 1906–1910 British classical liberals Members of London County Council People educated at Tonbridge School Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge